


To Space We Look With Childhood Wonder

by Inastiel



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Kid!Bones, Kid!Fic, M/M, Prompt Fill, deaged bones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 23:15:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1567547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inastiel/pseuds/Inastiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>CMOs who can't see over the biobeds properly are generally not allowed to serve on the ship. There are, however, some exceptions to the rule, especially when your CMO was previously a fully grown adult....</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Space We Look With Childhood Wonder

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill for 'something about deaged Bones.'  
> Tumblr post [here.](http://voidfoxs.tumblr.com/post/84762985113/can-you-write-something-about-deaged-bones)  
> This is a slightly ridiculous fic and not really that serious, so, enjoy!

The jungle is completely silent. Jim holds up a hand to bring the landing party to a halt and scans the surrounding trees, dread sliding through him. They were filled with life and noise only minutes before, even when they stumbled through them, but now something has scared everything into silence. Jim moves back to the security guard in charge of the trek with padded footsteps and feels his heart drop at her grim expression. She looks considerably tense, watching the trees with a tight grip on her phaser.

“Lieutenant Farnsworth.” He says, keeping his voice low. “Recommendation?” He asks, deferring to her superior knowledge of such terrain.

Farnsworth sweeps her gaze over the away team of five and then directs it back to the captain. “Whatever has scared the forest life away is big, Captain, and most likely dangerous. I’d draw weapons and either keep going or turn back – the sooner we get out of this area the better.”

Jim thinks the situation over carefully. They are supposed to be examining an ancient structure of a long dead civilization, but interference from the structure had forced the Enterprise to beam them down a fair way off, out in the jungle. He curses the mission internally again and sighs.

“We’ll keep going then. There’s no use having to do this hike again – we need to get to that structure.” Jim decides and turns back to the away team. “Keep your phasers at ready and set to stun. Whatever has scared off the animals is most likely not friendly.”

Leonard snorts. “Of course it isn’t. We can’t go one mission without something trying to kill or maim us.”

Jim pats him on the back encouragingly and moves to the front with Farnsworth, who instructs everyone to keep their noise to a minimum in a no-nonsense tone. They move quietly through the jungle without incident for a few more minutes. Jim’s stomach is a knot of fear, exhilaration and apprehension as he watches the trees ahead. He hasn’t had this much excitement for over a month now, not since the last mission that went awry.

Something explodes above their heads in a flutter of leaves and a shape hurtles from the trees, pinning Leonard down before anyone can even blink. The green animal opens its mouth and drops its head, obviously aiming for Leonard’s throat. Jim feels his heart stutter but the doctor manages to get his arm up, and its teeth sink into his shoulder instead. Leonard lets out a howl of pain that pierces Jim to the bone, and he recovers enough to start shooting.

The creature lets go of Leonard and growls menacingly at the away team, warning them away from its intended prey. Jim feels his heart thudding furiously in his chest when the stun doesn’t work on the feline like animal.

“Set phasers to kill!” Jim yells. Farnsworth switches her phaser over at the same time as Jim and together they shoot the animal. It staggers back and gives one last half-hearted yowl before falling heavily to the leaf strewn ground, dead. Jim heaves a sigh of relief and then catches sight of Leonard.

“Bones!” He cries out, racing over to him. There’s blood all over his shoulder, staining his uniform shirt and hand as he tries to stop the bleeding.

“’m okay Jim.” Leonard groans. “Is anyone else hurt?” Jim glances up at the others, none of who seem harmed.

“They’re fine. We better get you back to the Enterprise.” Jim flips open his communicator and contacts the bridge. “Spock, can you organize two more security guards and a medical officer to take Doctor McCoy’s and my place on the landing party? We’ve been attacked by some kind of animal. It’s dead now, but McCoy is hurt.”

There’s a beat of silence from the other end as the first officer recognizes Jim’s worried tone. “Affirmative, Captain.” Spock answers. Jim disconnects and opens a line to the transporter room. “Doctor McCoy and I to beam up on my order. Have a medical team standing by.” He instructs and turns to Farnsworth. He informs her of the change of plans quickly – the landing party is to continue once the security guards and medical officer are beamed down.

“Jim, you can stay here. You don’t need to babysit me.” Leonard says through gritted teeth. Jim looks at the rising flush in his cheeks in concern. “You’re getting a fever.” He realizes, stomach dropping. “And of course I’m going to stay with you. You didn’t even want to go on this mission, the hell I’m going to leave you alone now.”

“There’s probably some kind of venom in the damn bite.” Leonard mutters, not hearing the last of Jim’s words. “Feels like my body is on fire.”

Jim swallows heavily. This is his fault. If he hadn’t of pushed Leonard into joining the away mission, if he hadn’t insisted on continuing, Leonard would be fine.

“We have to get you standing.” Jim tells him, biting back the guilt. He carefully wraps an arm around Leonard’s chest and helps him to his feet, wincing at the groans of pain movement wrenched out of Leonard. He keeps a hand on his back to stop him from swaying and contacts the transporter room again. “Beam us up.”

They thud down on the transporter pad harder than usual. Leonard lets out a cry of pain and his knees buckle. Jim holds him up and Chapel hurries forward, calm and collected. She swings the arm on his uninjured side over her shoulder and with Jim and the other nurse’s help heaves him onto the stretcher.

Leonard reaches up and grabs onto her arm, eyes wide. “Chris, there’s venom-” he begins and then passes out.

Chapel begins pushing the stretcher almost immediately with the other nurse and beckons Jim to follow. He keeps pace with the rapid speed of the stretcher and explains how Leonard came to be injured, guilt churning in his gut as he looks at his now pale face.

They reach the sickbay quickly. Chapel goes to move Leonard onto a biobed but Jim reaches out, beseeching.

“Take care of him.” Jim pleads. Chapel pauses and studies him for a moment, and then nods. “I will.” She reassures him and starts the scans with a concentrated frown, effectively shutting Jim out.

Jim backs out, knowing she needs peace to work, and stands in the middle of the sickbay, unsure of what to do next. A heavy blanket of exhaustion settles over him and he slumps for a moment. He can’t help Leonard in anyway but can only wait.

Jim hates waiting.

After a minute of hesitation he decides to go and start on his report. He can’t do much here.

 

-

 

Chapel contacts him two hours later. There’s an odd tone in her voice that immediately brings Jim out of the daze the report brought on.

“Captain, the venom from the animal that bit Doctor McCoy has had some unexpected effects.” Chapel sounds unsure.

“What kind of effects?” Jim asks curtly, already standing. “Is he alright?”

“I…Captain, you better come see for yourself.”

Jim contemplates Chapel’s inability to explain as he practically runs from his ready room. He slows his pace once he reaches the corridors, turning over various scenarios in his mind. Is Bones dying? What if he’s paralyzed or brain damaged? What if he doesn’t wake up? Every step he takes is layered in dread as he approaches the sickbay. He pauses outside, mentally preparing himself for the worst – or trying to, at the very least – and steps through.

A small shape collides with him and bounces onto the ground, letting out a pained groan. Jim automatically bends to help the boy up and freezes. There aren’t any children on the Enterprise, and even if there are none of them look like _this_.

“Bones?” He gasps in disbelief, taking in the wide hazel eyes and mess of dark hair. The child sniffs and then promptly bursts into tears.

Jim wraps his arms around him automatically, mind reeling. He pats the boy’s back and holds him while sprawled out on the floor of the sickbay. Chapel emerges from the intensive care unit and hurries over.

“I’m sorry Captain, he doesn’t remember anything –”

“I want mama!” Leonard wails, clinging to Jim like a frightened octopus. Jim rocks him gently and shoots Chapel a helpless look.

“Shh, it’s okay. Your mama’s not here right now, but I’ll take care of you. My name’s Jim. What’s yours?”

The boy pulls back from Jim enough to look at him. His face is red from crying, and Jim’s heart clenches painfully at the sight.

“Leonard. Leonard McCoy.” He whispers quietly.

Jim gives him an encouraging smile. “How old are you, Leonard?”

“Five.” Leonard replies in the same small voice. Jim resists the urge to hug him again and glances up at Chapel, eyebrows raised.

“The venom seems to have had an age-reversal effect, Captain. We didn’t realize what was happening at first, and then we were worried he’d de-age right out of existence, but he stopped about half an hour ago. Other than the fact he’s five he’s fine – there’s not a scratch on him.”

Jim nods and begins to stand, untangling Leonard from him carefully. He’s wearing some of the spare clothes older-Leonard had insisted on stocking up on after their last aid mission, in which they had rescued a shipload of lost colonists when their ship had threatened to blow up. They’d had clothes for the adults but barely any for their children, and so Leonard had requested clothing for children for their relief effort supplies afterwards. Jim is glad he had done so now. The shirt is slightly too big for Leonard and the pants go past his ankles, but they do fit.

Leonard looks up at Jim in awe. “Are you a captain? What are you captain of?!” He asks in astonishment, taking a step back as if he was afraid he’d committed some unforgivable crime by touching him.

“I’m captain of the Enterprise, the starship we’re on.” Jim stiffens as soon as the words come out of his mouth. Is this child version of Leonard as scared of space as his older self?

It seems not, as Leonard’s eyes brighten up at the words. “We’re in space?” The wonder in his voice makes Jim smile.

“Yes, we are. Would you like to see the ship?” He asks, glancing at Chapel.

“I’ve done all the tests I can for the moment.” She assures him. “We’re working on a way to reverse the effects of the venom already.”

“Alright, keep me updated.” He turns his attention back to Leonard and gestures to the door. “I’m sure you’ve seen the sickbay, so how about we start that tour?” He suggests. Leonard bounces on the heels of his feet, his earlier tears forgotten, and follows Jim eagerly into the corridor.

The crewmen they pass gape in surprise when they recognize their CMO, but a shake of Jim’s head makes them refrain from commenting. Leonard gazes at everything in wonder, skipping after Jim with a light step. Jim decides they should visit the bridge first and makes his way into the turbolift.

Leonard pauses suspiciously outside the turbolift and examines it carefully. “What’s this?”

“It’s a turbolift. It makes it faster to get to parts of the ship. It’s perfectly safe.” At Leonard’s evident hesitation Jim’s expression softens. “I’m right here, okay? I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Leonard looks at him with wide, trusting eyes and steps into the turbolift. Jim waits until he’s fully inside and has had time to adjust to being inside before starting it. The turbolift lurches to life and Leonard clings to Jim, eyes wide. Jim rubs his back reassuringly.

“We’re going to the bridge,” he explains, “where a lot of the ship is run. You’ll like it up there.” 

The turbolift comes to a halt and the door swishes open, revealing the bridge. Chekov turns in his chair and begins his customary announcement of “captain on the bridge” when he catches sight of Leonard.

The entire bridge crew falls silent. Spock moves to get out of the Captain’s chair but Jim motions for him to stay where he is.

Jim surveys the bridge for a moment and then gives his most charming smile. “This is Leonard. He’s visiting us for a little while, and I’ll hope you’ll all be welcoming.”

Leonard creeps back behind Jim and hides, his shyness overcoming him.

 

His crew stares at them in astonishment.

Jim walks onto the bridge, and after a moment Leonard follows him, unwilling to be left behind on the turbolift. Jim approaches Uhura first.

“Leonard, this is Nyota Uhura. She’s in charge of the ship’s communications.” Uhura recovers from her shock and extends a hand, smiling.

“Hello Leonard. It’s very nice to meet you.” She tells him. Leonard overcomes his shyness and shakes her hand timidly.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Miss Ny - Ny -” Leonard scrunches up his nose in frustration as he tries to pronounce her name.

“You can call me Uhura if you want.” Leonard gives a sigh of relief and beams up at her. “You’re very pretty, Miss Uhura.” He says seriously.

“Why thank you Leonard. You’re very pretty too.”

Leonard giggles.

Jim ushers Leonard along. Uhura shoots him a questioning look, to which he answers with a quiet “ask Nurse Chapel.” She nods and they move on to Chekov.

“This is Pavel Chekov.” Jim introduces them.

“You can call me Pasha.” Chekov tells him, giving Leonard a warm grin.

“Hello Pasha.” Leonard answers shyly. He catches sight of Chekov’s cluttered panel and examines it curiously. “What do you do?”

“I am a navigator.”  Chekov explains. “I plot safe paths for the ship to go so we don’t go anywhere dangerous or crash into anything and go boom.”

Leonard nods, his eyes wide. “What happens if you crash?”

“Then the ship gets broken.”

A flicker of fear appears on Leonard’s face, which Chekov hurries to dispel. “I make sure that doesn’t happen though. We’re very safe.”

Leonard considers this for a moment and then nods. “Okay.”

Chekov beckons him closer and begins to show him what the buttons and various instruments at his station do. Leonard listens in awe and occasionally asks what a word means. Somehow during the discussion he ends up perched on Chekov’s knee as Chekov tells him a harrowing story about some asteroids they had to navigate through.

Jim takes the opportunity to check on the landing party’s progress and quietly gives a basic explanation to the bridge crew. He knows most of them already knew about Leonard being injured, but not why their CMO is currently a five year old child.

Jim feels another wave of worry crash over him as he looks at Leonard. There’s no guarantee Chapel will be able to find an antidote or cure. If Leonard stays like this Jim doesn’t know what he’ll do. Leonard can’t exactly keep serving on the Enterprise when he’s too small to even see over a biobed properly, let alone treat someone.

Jim manages to pry Leonard away from the navigator and introduce him to everyone else. When they reach Spock Leonard stares at him in surprise.

“I am Spock.” The first officer announces, his voice completely serious.

Leonard narrows his eyes thoughtfully and studies Spock’s face. “Your furryflies are sick, Mister Spock.”

Jim chokes back a laugh.

Spock raises an eyebrow in a perfect arch. “Furryflies?”

Leonard taps impatiently at his own eyebrow. “Your eye caterpillars. Joce told me that when you die they turn into furry butterflies and fly away.”

Jim covers his mouth and turns away before he starts howling with laughter.

“Joce is incorrect, Doctor. These are eyebrows, not furry caterpillars or any other kind of insect. They are also not sick.”

Leonard crosses his arm and sticks out his chin stubbornly. “Yes they are. They’re also trying to escape by crawling up your forehead.”

Spock’s eyebrows rise even higher.

Leonard points to them, eyes wide. “See!” He exclaims accusingly.

Spock shakes his head. “You are being most illogical, Doctor. I am a Vulcan. It is normal for a Vulcan’s eyebrows to slant upward.”

Leonard blinks. “Are Vulcans elves?”

Jim snorts.

Spock lets out a quiet sigh. “Vulcans bear no relation to the mythological creatures of Earth called ‘elves.’”

Leonard wrinkles his nose at this. “Oh.”

“If you will excuse me, Doctor, I must return to my duties.”

“Why do you call me doctor?” Leonard questions, finally picking up on the word. Spock opens his mouth to reply and then falls silent.

“I assumed you were a doctor because of your knowledge of…furryflies.” Spock explains finally, wincing at the last word. “A doctor would know when one is ‘sick.’”

Leonard hums, accepting his crude explanation. “I’m too little to be a doctor, Mister Spock, but I wanna be one!” Leonard continues, voice rising in excitement.

Jim catches Spock’s brief look of helplessness and pats Leonard on the shoulder. “How about I show you the rest of the ship now?” He suggests. Leonard abandons his speech about his future career as a doctor and bounces on his toes, nodding eagerly.

Jim makes his way back to the turbolift. Leonard stops right outside it and turns, waving. “Bye!” He tells everyone, giving them a huge smile. The bridge crew waves back and a chorus of goodbyes follows them as the turbolift closes behind them.

Jim takes them to engineering next, where he shows Leonard the warp core and various engine controls. Scotty appears halfway through the tour and beams at them, unsurprised at the sight of Leonard. Word travels quickly on the Enterprise, it seems.

“Hello, Captain. And who is this young wee laddie?”

Leonard steps forward without any prompting, holding out his hand. “Leonard McCoy.” He introduces himself, already braver than he was at the start of the morning.

Scotty shakes his hand enthusiastically, kneeling down to his level. “Montgomery Scott, but you can call me Scotty. Is the Captain showing you around my fine ship?”

Leonard nods. “It’s a very nice ship.” He shares.

“Aye, I agree. I make sure her engine’s running smoothly. She purrs like a kitten on good days.” Scotty tells him, voice filled with his love for the Enterprise. Leonard gazes at the warp core with wide eyes.

“Is that what makes it go vroom?” He queries seriously.

“That’s what gives her the energy to go vroom.” Scotty confirms.

They finish their tour of engineering with the commentary of Scotty and move up to the transporter rooms. Leonard peers suspiciously at the transporters and refuses to get close to them, holding onto the same distrust of them that he has an adult. Jim and the transporter technician exchange knowing looks as Leonard worries about people losing their arms when they beam down.

When Leonard’s stomach starts growling, Jim changes course to the mess hall. He replicates Leonard a ham sandwich at his request and gets himself one too. He snatches up a piece of cake as an afterthought and makes his way to a table, Leonard trailing behind him.

“Captain Jim?”

Jim glances up from his sandwich. “Hmm?”

“Thank you for showing me your ship.” Leonard says sincerely. Jim smiles at him.

“You’re welcome, Bo- Leonard. I like having you here.”

“Really?”

“Of course. And you can call me Jim, if you want.”

Leonard grins and eats his sandwich. Uhura appears shortly after, her shift finished, and sits down opposite them with her own food.

“You aren’t seriously going to feed him just that.” She points to the cake, eyebrows raised disapprovingly. Jim is reminded of Leonard’s comment about furryflies and tries not to spit his food out.

He finishes his mouthful and frowns. “What? He had a sandwich.”  

“Where’s the fruit?” Uhura asks pointedly. “Give him something a bit healthier than a slice of cake, Jim.”

Jim pouts at the questioning of his food choices and sighs. “What kind of fruit would you like, Leonard?” He asks, turning to the boy. He’s sure of the answer already.

“A peach, please.” Leonard answers, smiling at Uhura. Jim sighs and retrieves one. When he returns Spock is seated next to Uhura, studying Leonard intently, who is staring right back.

“Here. A peach. Happy?” He plops it down next to Leonard and crosses his arms at Uhura.

“Where’s yours?” She enquires, crossing her own arms.

“What?”

“Just because Le- Bones isn’t here at the moment doesn’t mean you’re let off eating some kind of fruit or vegetable.”

Jim scowls. “He won’t care.”

“I’m sure he will.”

Jim exhales in frustration and gets up again. He finds himself a banana and waves it in front of Uhura.

“Now are you happy?”

“Yes.”

Leonard leans over to Jim. “Are you on a diet?” He whispers.

Jim frowns down at his banana. “No.” He denies at the same time Uhura says yes.

Leonard pokes Jim’s stomach thoughtfully. “Is it to make sure you don’t get any pudgier?”

Jim looks affronted. “I’m nowhere near pudgy.”

Leonard raises his eyebrow in a perfect echo of his older self’s incredulous expression. “Whatever you say, Jim.” He pats Jim’s knee and turns back to his peach.

Jim gets the feeling Uhura is laughing at him silently.

 

-

 

After finishing his banana Jim takes Leonard back to the sickbay. The crew no longer stares at Leonard in shock when they see him but wave and smile at the less thunder-like version of their CMO instead.

Chapel sits Leonard on a biobed and runs him through a few more tests. He tells her excitedly about his day, punctuating it with various little personal observations about the ship and crew.

Jim goes to leave, knowing he should take beta shift considering he missed most of alpha shift taking care of Leonard, but hesitates.

“Leonard seems to be slowly aging again, Captain, and I’m going to give him a compound we’ve synthesized to speed it along, but it’ll knock him out for a while. We had to keep him sedated when he de-aged because of the stress and pain it would have brought on.” Chapel informs him softly, glancing at Leonard, who is already starting to look slightly older. “We’ve hypothesized that the venom works much quicker on the creature’s natural prey after we examined some of the animals the away team sent up.”

“How quick?”

“Hours. The predator bites them, they crawl away, de-age enough to be caught easily, and the within a few hours are back to their normal size again. Evidently the venom works differently on humans.”

“Will he be okay?” Jim asks. Chapel is momentarily shocked at the vulnerability in his voice.

“I think so, yes. I’d give it a day or two before he’s back to normal. The venom works in ways we’ve never seen before, but we can predict to an extent the affect it will have on him while it’s still in his system.”

Jim turns and watches Leonard play with a toy Chapel has dredged up. “Thank you.” He tells her, sincere.

“We want him back just as much as you do.” Chapel reassures him. “Don’t worry about leaving him here. I’ll take care of him.”

Jim gives her a grateful smile, and waves goodbye to Leonard, who waves back enthusiastically.

 

Beta shift drags on even longer than alpha shift. The crew on the bridge are happy to see him, and he is sure to check on each and every one of them and ask how they’re doing, but a lot of his attention remains on the sickbay. The away team returns safely and successfully, having finished their mission of surveying the ancient structure. Jim congratulates them and spins the hours away thinking about Leonard.

Spock appears on the bridge three quarters of the way through beta shift. Jim is surprised, considering his shift had finished hours ago.

“Captain, I am willing to take your place for the remainder of beta shift so you may attend to Doctor McCoy. I know his wellbeing is a great concern for you, and I believe that at this moment your place is with him.” Spock states, and then looks at the ground uncomfortably. “It is the crew’s desire that the Doctor is returned to his former self as soon as possible, and this process can be accelerated with you as a part of it.”

Jim nods, thinking it over. “And by the crew, do you include yourself, Mister Spock?”

Spock meets his eyes. “I do.”

“I’m glad that under all that bickering you two do care about each other after all.” Jim grins.

“On the contrary, Captain, I merely believe that as a child Doctor McCoy is even more illogical than his adult self, and that-”

Jim stands and claps Spock on the shoulder. “I get it, Spock. I’ll take up your offer too. Thank you.”

Spock nods tersely and sits in the Captain’s chair. Jim strides over to the turbolift with renewed vigor, eager to check up on Leonard’s progress.

“Captain.” Spock calls out, hesitant.

“Yes, Mister Spock?”

“I look forward to seeing Doctor McCoy back to his old self again. He is an asset to the crew.” Spock tells him, frank.

Jim quells any remarks about Spock showing emotion and settles for a smile instead. “Indeed he is.”

The turbolift door slides shut before Spock can ask him not to repeat his words to Leonard.

 

-

 

Jim finds Chapel and Leonard attending to one of the engineering ensigns, who seems to have burnt himself. The ensign is taking advantage of the fact Leonard is only a child at the moment and is complaining to the high heavens about the pain.

Chapel steadily ignores him. Leonard is watching her work with wide eyed attentiveness, only occasionally looking up to scowl at the engineer. Jim waits for them to finish.

The ensign is moaning about Chapel’s rough treatment, which as far as Jim can tell is actually quite gentle, when Leonard snaps.

“Stop complaining, you idiot, she’s trying to fix you! Don’t be such a baby!” He tells the ensign off. The engineer’s mouth snaps shut immediately, surprised at being scolded by a child. Chapel smirks and Jim tries not to laugh.

Chapel finishes treating the chastised ensign and sends him on his way. Leonard’s scowl melts off his face when he sees Jim and he bounces over. “Chapel was showing me how to be a doctor!” He exclaims, grinning. He launches himself at Jim happily. Jim scoops him out of the air and sets him on his hip.

Chapel hands him a container of tablets. “I’ve made sure he’s had dinner. Give him the two tablets before he goes to sleep.”

Jim takes the container and pockets it carefully. “Thank you.”

Chapel gives him a brief smile and waves goodbye to Leonard. “Have a good night!” She tells him. He waves back with a wide grin.

Jim carries Leonard to his favourite observation deck, Leonard’s earlier wonder at being in space echoing in his mind. He turns off the lights so they can see. The wide expanse of space stretches out before them, and Leonard hops down quickly. He plasters himself against the thick glass and traces the movements of the stars in awe.

Jim feels a wave of warmth seeing Leonard being able to admire space without any of the fear that usually swamps him.

“Wow.” Leonard whispers, sitting down cross legged in front of the stars. Jim joins him, admiring the view.

“I was born in space.” Jim shares. Leonard gapes at him in surprise.

“That’s amazing!” He replies, wonder tinging every syllable. Jim contemplates his reaction and considers it, considers the explosions and the death and the tragedy but also the life that happened that day, the survival and hopes that were born from his father’s sacrifice. He thinks about floating through the enormity of space, newly born and _alive_. Jim gazes at Leonard’s ruffled head of hair, contemplating his innocent comment, and smiles.

“It is pretty amazing, isn’t it?” He agrees.

The stars continue to fill their view for the next hour as they orbit around the planet. Eventually Leonard ends up curled up on Jim’s lap, occasionally pointing out a particularly bright star or an interesting part of the planet below them. When his breathing deepens and he’s snuggled against Jim with his thumb at the edge of his mouth, Jim reluctantly shakes him awake.

“Let’s get you to bed, Bones.” He murmurs, scooping him up. He carries Leonard back to their quarters and fumbles for the lights. Leonard wakes up enough to smile sleepily up at him.

Jim smiles fondly at him. Leonard reaches up and taps him on the nose lightly, beaming.

“Boop!” He exclaims, giggling. Jim boops him on the nose in return and laughs quietly when he giggles even more.

Jim sets him down in the bathroom and convinces him to brush his teeth. He retrieves the tablets Chapel gave him and persuades him to take those as well. Leonard makes a face but swallows them quickly. Jim then finds the largest pair of Leonard’s clothes that still fits him at this smaller size, mindful of Chapel’s words, and gives them to Leonard to get changed into.

Jim moves some blankets to the couch and gets the bed ready. Within minutes Leonard is yawning again, and so Jim scoops him up and sets him in the bed.

“Goodnight Leonard.” He murmurs, tucking him in. He flops on the couch and cocoons himself in his own blankets, ordering the lights off with a yawn of his own.

He’s almost asleep when a quiet voice interrupts his doze.

“Jim?” Leonard whispers. There’s a tinge of fright in his voice that makes Jim sit up immediately.

“What is it?”

“Can you read me a story?”

Jim crawls off the couch and gathers up his blankets and pillow. He brings them over to the bed and settles beside Leonard. “Of course.”

He reaches over for his PADD and brings up The Hobbit, remembering a long ago conversation with Leonard about it being his favourite book as a child. He burrows under the blankets and begins to read.

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort….”

Jim reads with expression, his voice low and soothing, but soon his words turn to an entirely different subject. He tells stories of glittering nebulae and tumbling asteroids, of planets made of fire and ice and life, of solar systems unexplored and civilizations newly discovered. Leonard inches closer and closer until he’s snuggled on Jim’s chest; hearing the thrum of his tales in his ribcage and heart. He falls asleep to Jim whispering words about galaxies and man, murmuring with awe that in the entire universe he was lucky enough to have met Bones.

Jim wakes up in the morning with a heavy weight clinging to his chest. A fully adult Leonard is sprawled on top of him, dreaming of the vastness of space without an ounce of fear.

Jim smiles and goes back to sleep.


End file.
